Brave New World: Is the Predicted Future a Reality?

Alexis H.
Senior English 4
25 April 2012
Are We the “Brave New World”?Gattaca, a movie released in 1997, is about potential children being selected through preimplantation genetic diagnosis to ensure they carry the best hereditary traits of their parents. A genetic registry database uses biometrics to instantly identify and classify those created as "valids" while those that carry traditional means are known as "in-valids". This movie easily corresponds with the use of science and technology in today’s world. Many probably didn’t think much of this movie, just as they didn’t with the Aldous Huxley’s Novel Brave New World, which is based on a very similar dystopian future. The societies in the novel and movie are considered “perfect” worlds with their genetic engineering, young people and drugs, and human conditioning. This sounds shockingly similar to what America may be becoming.

Most individuals would say they are insecure or unhappy with at least one of their physical traits, especially women/girls. According to an article by Batul Baxamusa, “Women have a craze to look young and maintain their beauty for all eternity. The benefits of genetic engineering in humans may make it possible to slow down or reverse certain cellular metabolism, that may be able fulfill this desire to remain 'forever young' for many dreamers in the near future” (Baxamusa 1). Girls want to look like their favorite celebrity/model they see on television or in magazines with their perfect looking, skinny airbrushed bodies and long voluptuous hair. In today’s society, so much is done to alter your appearance, such as surgery to permanately change your eye color, Botox, and hair extensions. This is just one of many signs that this society is becoming a Brave New World. In the novel Brave New World, every individual is genetically engineered to look and act like the world leaders want them to. “ Bokanovsky’s Process is one of the major instruments of social stability”(Huxley 7)....

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...﻿Dystopia in Aldous Huxley's BraveNew Worl
It's hard to imagine yet somehow so extremely close to us is the
possibility of a world of ideal perfection where there is no room or
acceptance of individuality. Yet, as we strive towards the growth of
technology and improvement of our daily living we come closer to closing
the gap between the freedom of emotions, self understanding, and of speech
and the devastation of a dystopia. A utopia, or perfect world, gone awry
is displayed in Aldous Huxley's provocative novel BraveNewWorld.
Dystopia is drawn on "political and emotional events, anchoring its vision
of a nightmarish future in contemporary fears of totalitarian ideology and
uncontrolled advances in technology and science" (Baker 22). It is the
situation that costs a piece of an unhealthy environment for human beings,
is the theme of the novel. The dystopian setting is brought about by
technology and by higher authorities. As technology increases, the use for
human beings in the work force decreases leaving an overwhelming amount of
depression among humans. Therefore, a way to continue the production of
technological findings is by bringing up humans from day one to accept
their unhappiness as normal. By "breeding" human beings to accept the fact
that they are born to do a specific group. Higher authorities know the
illimination of humans'...

...especially evident in texts like BraveNewWorld which are designed specifically as probes into the aspects of society that the writer desires to explore. Aldous Huxley wrote BraveNewWorld during the late 20s and early 30s; in the middle of the Great Depression and at the eve of the Second World War. World War One was still fresh in everyone's memories and so was the Bolshevik revolution of Russia, which threatened to spread throughout Europe and the world. On the other side of the Atlantic the "NewWorld" was undergoing a revitalisation of industry with Henry Ford and other leading capitalists implementing the concept of mass production and attempting to create the ideal consumer society. There was also a form of cultural renaissance in the central European countries where the avaunt-garde was embraced rigorously in art and architecture. And in science, especially in the biological field, great breakthroughs, the likes of which the world hadn't witnessed since the days of Newton were being accomplished. In short it was a period of great social change and instability. Such instability eventually leads to fears and insecurities, most of which tend revolve around the future of society and the future of the individual.
<br>
<br>For the rich upper class the primary fear was...

...BraveNewWorld: Huxley Predicted Many Events of the Future
Aldous Huxley wrote BraveNewWorld out of fear of society's apparent lack
of morals and corrupt behaviour during the roaring twenties. Huxley believed
that the future was doomed to a non-individualistic, conformist society, a
society void of the family unit, religion and human emotions. Throughout the
novel, Huxley predicts many events for the future, most of which concentrate on
a morally corrupt society. The most important of these predictions include:
greater sexual freedom, over-population, brain-washing/sleep-teaching, and the
use of mind altering drugs. Aldous Huxley's BraveNewWorld warns of a
possible future dystopia, based on social attitudes and medical advancements of
his time.
Huxley's future dystopia is created largely by perverted sexual
freedoms, which in turn cause corrupt individuals, entirely lacking ethics and
morals. Sexual promiscuity appears to be a much more frequent activity now
then it was in the Thirties. Critics blame "...the advent of the pill for
declining morality and indiscriminate sexual activity." Many believe that each
time medicine reduces the risk of unwanted diseases and pregnancies, society,
on the whole, will increase its sexual activity. Huxley's...

...BraveNewWorld vs. Reality
In many cases when you read a novel you may find comparisons between the "fictional" society and your realistic one. The author may consciously or unconsciously create similarities between these two worlds. The novelist can foresee the future and write according to this vision. In BraveNewWorld, Adlous Huxley envisions the future of our society and the dangerous direction it is headed in.
BraveNewWorld is greatly dependent
upon soma, as in our world where prescribed drugs and drug abuse are prominent. This is evident when Bernard and Lenina return from the Savage Reservation. Lenina is devastated from her experiences, so decides to take soma. It illustrates how like our world when something upsets us instead of trying to solve the problem we use drugs to mask them.
Linda's addiction to soma is also an illustration of the similarities of drug abuse between our two worlds. Linda's return to BraveNewWorld after many years brings her to the abuse of soma. She uses it as an escape from reality. Some of us use drugs to escape from the harshness and the tough brutality of reality. We always dream of the perfect utopia and expect our world...

...think that the society in Aldous Huxley's BraveNewWorld is a gross representation of the future, but perhaps our society isn't that much different. In his foreword to the novel BraveNewWorld, Aldous Huxley envisioned this statement when he wrote: "To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda...." Thus, through hypnopaedic teaching (brainwashing), mandatory attendance to community gatherings, and the use of drugs to control emotions, Huxley bitterly satirized the society in which we live.
<br>
<br>The way the fascist and totalitarian regimes of the past used mass propaganda techniques to "brainwash" their people was very similar to the way Huxley described the hypnopaedic teachings in his novel. He also thought, however, that the present-day totalitarian states' methods were still "crude and unscientific." For example, in the novel the different classes had been brainwashed since birth to believe that they all contributed equally to society. Therefore, the people wouldn't try to think for themselves because they had never been trained to think anything differently. In addition, they didn't have any knowledge of a society that they could compare themselves to. In our society, many great lessons have been learned from the mistakes of rulers in the past. This is revealed when the Director said, "History is bunk." In...

...Modern Society’s Happiness… Genuine or Not?
Modern day society is not at the same extent of totalitarianism through science and technology as the one depicted in the novel BraveNewWorld by Aldous Huxley. The utopian society which is set in A.F. 632 revolves around a world in which pleasure and the pursuit of happiness are the key aspects in each characters everyday life. This is achieved by the scientific and technological advances in BraveNewWorld. The government’s means of control is to ensure happiness through drugs, stability by controlling the classes of people through what the book refers to as the “Bokanovsky Process,” and pleasure being achieved through the cheapening of moral entertainment. In today’s society, the desire to accomplish these things are attempted, but not to the degree of the citizens in the novel. Although the way in which we do achieve pleasure and happiness is different between our modern day society and the novel, we are becoming nearer to the state of civilization depicted in BraveNewWorld.
Pleasure is one of the key aspects in the civilization illustrated by Aldous Huxley. Pleasure is reached through a drug named soma. In order to maintain the stabilization of society, soma is used to control and take away feelings of depression, anxiety, and other undesirable emotions. Through the advancements...

...﻿Throughout the weekend I watched Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s BraveNewWorld. I have always been a sucker for the futuristic movies, the viewing depictions of what the future might look like holds a fascination that, I trust, need not be explained as I watched 1984 and BraveNewWorld in particular, I was struck by both the similarities and differences between the movies.
For instance, both movies depict a terrifying version of the future consisting of totalitarian governments, the dehumanization of the populace, extreme social conditioning from on high, rigid, prescribed caste systems, and the obliteration of Christianity. In both stories there is a “hero” who gradually awakens to the horror of the society in which he finds himself. In 1984, it is Winston and Julia. In BraveNewWorld it’s John, “the savage.” In both movies, the heroes feel that there is more than a State-constructed reality. Yet, in both stories the heroes end in despair and defeat, unable to change the social structure or see the victorious intrusion of greater transcendent reality into their bleak worlds.
In both stories, books are outlawed, individuality is suppressed, free thought is unacceptable, and a suffocating collectivism defined and controlled by the State is enforced. The differences are...

...BraveNewWorld
In our world, we wish for new advances in technology, a more stable society and freedom to do as we please but what happens when our wishes come true and technology advances to the stage that it begins to control us? What happens when we establish the type of freedom we desire and become chemically dependent? What happens when everything is so controlled that our suffering ends because we cannot experience love? BraveNewWorld by Aldos Huxley advances to the future to demonstrate the way the world would be if all of our wishes come true; this book should be taught because it teaches us to question the way we live our lives by endorsing promiscuous sex, the use of drugs and advancement in technology.
In the “BraveNewWorld” promiscuous sex is a necessity. In the beginning of the story, Fanny voices to Lenina that she should sleep with more people because she has already been sleeping with Henry for four months. This makes us think about all the times we have engaged in sex or desired to have sex only because it is the thing to do in order to fit in. Today’s society attempts to convince us that it is acceptable to be sexually active. Most television shows, songs and advertisements are designed to attract teenagers by involving sex. Huxley makes us think about the way the...